Vucetich fingerprint classification

What it is

A system for classifying fingerprints into four types that allowed people to be filed and identified; in 1892 it solved the Rojas case, the first crime solved by a fingerprint. Argentina was the first country to adopt it as an official system.

Galton and Henry developed contemporary systems in the United Kingdom and India; Vucetich was the first to apply it systematically in policing.

What it led to

• the abandonment of Bertillon's anthropometry
• adoption across Latin America and Spain
• identity documents bearing fingerprints

Built on

• First classification of fingerprint patterns (Purkinje)1823

Links

Sources✓ verified 2026-09-25

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Vucetich